Falcons made to work in win over Cutters

The Sunshine Coast defence got off to a shaky start after conceding consecutive penalties in the opening set of the contest, with Mackay opting to take the early shot at goal to give them a 2-0 lead.

The Falcons hit back soon after through Jon Reuben, who latched onto a neat flick pass from his inside man, streaking away to score in the right corner.

A successful sideline conversion took the score to 6-2 in favour of the visitors.

The Falcons would double their money on the very next set, with a strong kick-off return setting the visitors up in attacking field position for Caleb Daunt to muscle his way over on the left flank to extend the lead to ten points.

A costly penalty had Mackay on the back foot only minutes later and the Falcons made them pay, with Tom Rafter strolling through a gaping hole and over to score off a nicely timed pass.

Sunshine Coast began to exert their dominance on the contest, scoring in the very next set down the left edge in a play that spanned almost the entire length of the field. Daunt bagged his second try as the Cutters simply failed to keep up with the pace.

Mackay finally responded in the shadows of halftime, with Lloyd White latching onto a beautiful flick pass to score down the right flank, before the video referee denied the Cutters a third try on the final play of the half, ruling a double movement to send the Sunshine Coast Falcons to the sheds with a 24-8 lead.

The Cutters eventually got their third try midway through the second half, with a spiralling bomb finding Carlin Anderson who pounced on the ball to cut the deficit to 10 points and it was game on.

However, they couldn’t cross again and Reuben put the final nail in Mackay’s coffin late in the game, tiptoeing down the right touchline to score in the final minute, giving the Falcons a gritty victory.

“I never thought the game was out of reach, we were close to being the better side for most of the contest,” Mackay coach Steve Sheppard said post-match.

“I’m happy with the effort, we planned to weather the storm for the first 10 minutes, but they got those tries in the first half and built a good lead.

“We like to play physical, that’s what we’re about and I think everyone should be pretty proud of the effort today.

“We just need to bottle what we’ve done (over the last couple of weeks) and go and show that we can hang with anyone in the competition.”

Next weekend, the Cutters host the Norths Devils in what is set to be another tough challenge.

The high flying Sunshine Coast will head home and play host to the Townsville Blackhawks in what is shaping to be one of the matches of the round.